


Hiraeth

by primela



Series: Off the Court [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Hinata Shouyou is Sunshine, Hurt Hinata Shouyou, Hurt Kageyama Tobio, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Protective Kageyama Tobio, my babies are such badasses, there's some violence in this but nothing too graphic, they ARE assassins after all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:34:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22837114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/primela/pseuds/primela
Summary: Kageyama looks at Hinata, and his eyes meet his, saying all the words he can’t right now.Hinata’s lips quirk upward, and he gives Kageyama a thumbs-up with his empty hand.And then they move[the assassins au that nobody asked for.]
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Series: Off the Court [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751227
Comments: 22
Kudos: 211





	Hiraeth

**Author's Note:**

> hellloooo people idk if any of u know but this is my first work in haikyuu so plz show mercy. this fic doesn't revolve entirely around their relationship, i wanted a plot outside of that as well, even if it's not very developed. i just wanted to get this universe out of my head and this thing happened oops.
> 
> there is violence in this which i wouldn't call graphic but still, it's not like it's pretty. click out if you are uncomfortable with that, i want you guys to be safe lol

Hinata Shouyou hates waiting. Every bit of it. To him, there are no redeeming aspects of it. All it is is silence and boredom; waiting for a sign to make a move that may come in two minutes or two hours, whenever the target decides to finish their evil business and leave.He swings his legs in an attempt to keep the blood moving; sitting in a tree for the past hour and a half doesn’t really help with keeping Hinata ready to spring into action at any moment, which is exactly what he’ll need to do. Once he’s done waiting, of course.He accidentally kicks one of the thin branches below the thick one he’s perched on so uncomfortably, and cringes as it makes a rustling noise, disturbing the horrible silence of the forest. 

  


“Hinata! How many times do I have to tell you to sit still and be quiet?!” A sharp voice reprimands him in a harsh whisper from somewhere lower in the tree, and Hinata’s legs still. Kageyama is the exact opposite of Hinata. The thrill of waiting seems to be just as invigorating to him as an actual fight is to Hinata, which baffles him to no end. 

  


“Hey, it’s only been like, twice!” Hinata says in hushed tones, and he hears Kageyama mutter back, “Two times too many, idiot.” He opens his mouth with a sharp retort on his tongue, but the sudden sound of a heavy door slamming shut makes him close it again and suck in a breath.Their target was leaving the facility they had been watching, circling, like angels of death. More accurately, a reaper and his scythe; Kageyama and Hinata’s unofficial titles in the world of assassins and drugs and trafficking.

  


He swiftly but quietly shifts into a position that completely conceals him from sight of the ground, and Hinata peaks around the trunk to track the position of the gangly man he was supposed to murder. The drug lord must not be as smart as Hinata thought he was, because he’s standing all alone, right in a spot that he and Kageyama could reach in less than five seconds. 

  


The two had planned this perfectly. When the man comes out to the lot to get driven away in one of those fancy black sudans, they would make their move.The car that was to pick him up was never coming; Kageyama and Hinata had made sure of that when they intercepted it on its way here, slit the driver’s throat, then disposed of the sudan in a ditch. Finally the plan was beginning to fall into place, and Hinata could stretch his legs. He just needed to wait for the signal.

  


He doesn’t have to wait long before he feels the thick branch he’s on move up and down, up and down, and he carefully swings himself to the branch below him, where Kageyama is waiting for him. Now they move. Kageyama doesn’t bother to be quiet anymore and he lands on the ground with a stomp, Hinata close behind him, though his steps are much lighter. The man’s head swivels to look at them, and his face pales. 

  


“A reaper,” he snarls, glaring at Kageyama, then at Hinata, “and a scythe.” 

  


“You look like you need a ride! We’d be more than happy to give you one,” Hinata drawls, pulling a dagger from its sheath at his side. Kageyama rolls his eyes at the comment and draws his pistol, and Hinata can’t help but feel intimidating, illuminated by only the faint light of LED lights from the ominous building their target had exited, knife in hand, Kageyama next to him.

  


The feeling is quickly extinguished as an eerie smile spreads across the man’s boney face. “You really thought I didn’t know two assassins had been tracking me for a week? I have moles everywhere, and for the right amount of cash, everybody talks.  _ Everybody _ .” 

  


Hinata, unnerved but still determined, mumbles to Kageyama darkly, “Something isn’t right here.”

  


“Yeah, no shit.” He pauses, then something of an epiphany seems to occur to him. “Hinata, how did he know we’re the Reaper and Scythe? Nobody knows what we look like.”

  


“Uh, why does that matter?” If Kageyama could facepalm right now, Hinata was sure he’d have done it fifty times over just then. Well,  _ sorry _ that not everybody is as smart as him.

  


“Do I have to spell it out for the poor boy?” At that, Hinata bristles slightly, miffed about being talked down to. Can someone just say what’s actually going on here instead of talking in code or whatever the heck they’re doing? Why is everything so cryptic in this business?

  


“Shutup,” Kageyama says curtly to the man, and he laughs in response. Hinata gets goosebumps all over his body from the shrill sound of it. “What’s so funny?” Hinata asks sincerely, flailing his arms around wildly. Kageyama steps away from him, scolding him for being so careless with the knife. Hinata sticks his tongue out at him.

  


“It means, Scythe, that I’m the one who hired you guys. I’ve known you were coming for a week, and I’ve been ready for you.” That… makes a lot more sense than what Hinata was thinking. With no warning, nearly twenty armed men surge from the facility, rushing toward them with guns drawn, literally. 

  


Hinata probably should have drawn his own pistol earlier, lying forgotten in his sheath, but he hates the feeling of shooting it. The recoil, the noise… All of it. Except for the smell. 

Well, it’s too late now. Fighting with a disadvantage is something Hinata is used to, given his size and all. Kageyama always covers Hinata long, picking off soldiers one by one while Hinata is the monster under the bed, giving no warning before you’re dead on the ground. They have a system.

  


Hinata looks at Kageyama for direction; he always knows what to do. Mostly. Do they wait to fight, or do they take their chances right now? They’ve fought outnumbered before; Hinata’s dilemma is their guns. They could easily shoot them like dogs or take them into custody with just a few threats. Judging by the fact they haven’t shot yet, it’s probably the latter.

  


Kageyama looks at Hinata, and his eyes meet his, saying all the words he can’t right now. 

  


Hinata’s lips quirk upward, and he gives Kageyama a thumbs-up with his empty hand. 

  


And then they move.

  


Hinata hurriedly hides behind the nearest tree, sheathing his blade once more. He has no need for it right now, he doesn’t plan to fight. “Make this easier for yourselves! You can’t hide!” Now it’s Hinata’s turn to smile. Oh, yes he can. He hauls himself up a tree, branch by branch, the burn of his muscles burning keeping him climbing faster and faster. Kageyama can’t climb nearly as well as Hinata can, so Hinata has no clue what Kageyama’s doing right now. He only knows that Kageyama wanted to meet up with him later, and to retreat for now, and he has complete faith in his partner.

  


“He’s climbing up the tree!” 

  


“It’s too dark, I can’t see him!”

  


Panicked yells come from below, but one stands above it all. “We have the Reaper, kill the Scythe! We don’t need him!” Well, that’s not good. Stupid Kageyama. Now he’s running  _ and _ trying to stay alive. What a fun night.

  


“Open fire!” 

  


Hinata leaps to another tree branch, clinging onto it for dear life and praying that it doesn’t snap. Bullets begin to rain down on him, the gunshots echoing as the bullets splinter wood. They can’t see him, it’s too dark. They’re just playing a guessing game of the most dangerous sorts. 

  


Hinata doesn’t stop moving; he needs to get to a more secure place so that he’s safe from the unforgiving bite of bullets, and he hurriedly grabs another branch and pulls himself up, then leaps to another. His hands wrap around a branch and hold him firmly in place, and he ducks behind the tree trunk to catch his breath, trusting it to shield him from the bullets. Hinata knows that he needs to keep moving; Kageyama needs Hinata to get him out of their target’s clutch, though he doesn’t doubt that his partner could do it on his own. 

  


The sound of wood creaking catches Hinata’s attention immediately, and the branch he’s holding on to snaps before he can jump away. Hinata loses his balance and his hands grab wildly at the air as he falls backward, down and down, until he can grab hold of another branch, terror pulsing through him. His hands get sliced open as he clings for dear life onto a thicker branch and stops himself from tumbling all the way to the ground. His feet dangle in the air, swinging for the second time that night, and Hinata finds it ironic how different the two circumstances are.

  


He pulls himself up, skinny arms trembling with the effort, but a white hot flash of unbearable pain in his leg causes him to cry out in pain and halt his efforts. Ignore it, Hinata tells himself, his ragged breathing louder than the gunshots. One more branch. He yanks himself up, ignoring the agony it causes, and he doesn’t stop moving until he knows no bullets can reach him anymore. One more branch.

  


Kageyama will have to fend for himself.

  
  
\-----  
  
  


Kageyama’s cuffed wrists limit his movements, as well as the five men who have him surrounded and at gunpoint; as if he’s stupid enough to try and escape now. He cannot believe the audacity this man has, to hire him and Hinata, and then try to kill them. Or abduct them. Kageyama isn’t sure what will happen to them yet.

  


He hopes that Hinata got away safely; he’s Kageyama’s ticket out of here, as well as the only partner in all of the Underworld who can keep up with him. It would be a pain to find a new one.

  


The situation earlier looked grim, and Kageyama made a split second decision to regroup with Hinata later. No matter how you look at it, twenty men versus two does not favor them, even if they have been trained exactly for this. He wants to kill their target, then tear him limb from limb for his betrayal. No wonder why they weren’t given a name or anything to work with, only a location and physical description. When they were hired a week ago to kill the skinny man, it seemed like one of the easiest jobs they had gotten in a while. Now, it was one of the hardest. How dare he make fools of them like that and think that he can get away with it?

  


“We have the Reaper, kill the Scythe! We don’t need him!” The man’s shrill voice echoes in the quiet of the wood, and Kageyama’s sharp eyes make out Hinata among the trees, moving faster than Kageyama could ever hope to match in the air. Hinata better hurry, these guys aren’t messing around, and even someone as fast as him can’t outrun a speeding bullet.

  


“Open fire!” All the men, minus the ones securing Kageyama, loose the full fury of their guns onto the retreating figure. He forces himself to remain calm and puts all of his faith in Hinata and his skills, because if he didn’t, he might as well have lost this fight already. 

  


The scent of gunpowder fills the air swiftly, and he relishes it. Guns are his favorite weapon. He had grown up with one in his hand, and the gun had raised him more than his own parents had. The absence of his own, now seized by one of the guards, distresses him more than he would ever admit. He takes a mental note of who is in possession of his pistol, then refocuses himself on more pressing matters. How does he escape this one?

  


The coldness of metal meeting his skin makes him shiver as a gun is pointed at the back of his head. “Don’t resist or I’ll kill you and take your partner instead,” a voice says into his ear, so close his breath tickles the back of his neck. 

  


“How do you know he’s not dead already?” A familiar cry of pain is heard over the sound of gunshots, and Kageyama’s blood runs cold all at once. What happened to him? Did he fall? Has he been shot?  _ Keep going, Hinata. Don’t stop now! _

  


“Looks like he’s still alive. Now, let’s go,” the smug voice says, and he hears the target shout an order to look for the Scythe and capture him alive if found. If he’s dead, leave his corpse. 

  


The moment Kageyama sees an opening, he’s going to put a bullet between the man’s eyes, but for now, he has to play along. Hinata’s an assassin, and so is Kageyama. Reaper and Scythe. They’ve gotten out of worse situations. A rough shove to his back has Kageyama following the men in front of him into the looming building, and when the huge metal doors close loudly behind him, he realizes just how much of a prison this place is. The gun is never removed from his head, and that makes Kageyama all the more frustrated. They’re taking precautions. That’s never good. 

  


“Who are you?” He demands, figuring that if he can’t fight, he should at least get some information out of his captors. Even after a week of constant monitoring by the assassins, they couldn’t even get the smallest bit of information on him. Nobody would talk to them, no matter what they offered. It seems somebody had already beaten them to it and paid them to keep their mouths shut. Everything can be bought for a price, even silence.

  


There’s a pause where Kageyama stands awkwardly, then the target comes into view. “I don’t think you’re the one asking questions here,  _ Reaper _ .” He spits the title like poison, and Kageyama’s anger swells. 

  


“You’re going to pay for this. You should know that!” 

  


“And who’s going to make me?” This was the moment where Hinata would normally descend from whatever ledge he’s perched on and say, “Surprise!” He’s always had a flare for the dramatic. Only, it doesn’t happen. It doesn't make Kageyama nervous; it only feeds his rage.

  


“If he’s hurt, if he’s  _ dead _ , I will do things that you didn’t even know a human could do, but no matter what I do, the results are the same. You  _ will _ die horribly.” He doesn’t yell it, or even raise his voice. He simply states it as a fact, and when the target meets his eyes, he knows the words must have hit home. Finally, something he’s done has caused a sign of uncertainty.

  


The man quickly recovers and straightens to meet Kageyama’s height. “If he’s dead, then that’s one less problem for me. Take him to a cell, and cuff him to the wall. Don’t take your eyes off of him for even one second, or you’ll find yourself bleeding out. I’ll be down to speak with him soon.” Then, he’s gone. The gun presses even harder into his skull, and Kageyama snaps, “I get it! You have a gun to my head!” They don’t respond, and Kageyama reluctantly follows the huge man in front of him, who now leads the way to his cell. What kind of place is this? 

  


The hallways are large, large enough that a small car could drive through them, and the entirely cement building is suffocating. They turn a corner, and Kageyama memorizes where they are taking him so that his escape later is easier. 

  


Kageyama has the distinct feeling that somebody is watching him, and it makes the hair on his neck prickle. One of those guards probably thinks he’s stupid enough to try and escape with a gun to his head and is doing exactly what his boss commanded; not taking their eyes off of him. No, he’s waiting for an opportunity to arise before he escapes.

  


“Surprise!” The cheery voice comes from behind them, and Kageyama instantly recognizes it and grins devilishly. It seems that opportunity has already arrived in the form of a ginger. All heads swivel to see Hinata charging at them, and Kageyama’s relief is instantly scattered by Hinata’s idiocy. They all still have guns! What is he thinking, charging at them like some knight in shining armor?

  


Kageyama hopes that Hinata has some sort of plan, but logically, he knows that there’s no plan. Hinata’s too impulsive to make a plan. Kageyama sees one of the guards aim his gun at Hinata, and finally decides to act.

  


He slams his elbow into the man’s chest behind him, and before he can pull the trigger, he ducks. The bullet fires, taking a few of his hairs with it, but his head’s still in tact. His ears ring and his head pounds from the noise, but he pushes his discomfort to a far corner of his mind and slams his cuffed hands under man's jaw, watching in grim satisfaction as he crumples to the ground. He’s been trained well for situations like this.

  


He steals the gun from the fallen figure and, without hesitation, shoots the other two men guarding him in the chest. Or kidnapping him. Kageyama’s not sure. Quickly, he kicks their guns far away from their reach. Kageyama turns to see Hinata swiping a man’s legs from under him and driving his elbow into his face, effectively breaking his nose. With another solid punch, the man’s out cold on the ground next to the rest of the guards. 

  


Kageyama stares at Hinata, looking him over for injuries, but Hinata huffs and turns away before he can finish checking him. 

  


“Well?” Hinata sighs, clearly expecting something as he folds his arms and leans on one leg heavily. 

  


“Well what?”

  


Hinata looks back at Kageyama with wide eyes and flails his arms around, his face reddening as he sputters gibberish. He deepens his voice in what Kageyama assumes to be an impression of himself and says, “Oh, thank you for saving me Hinata! You’re so cool, I wish I could sneak into places like you!” He reverts back to his normal voice. “It was no problem, Kageyama! I just did what any good partner would do!”

  


Kageyama stares at Hinata and a wave of affection rolls over him, and he finds it hard to hide his sly smile. He couldn’t have asked for a better person to be paired with. Before he met Hinata in the guild of Karasuno, he was in Kitagawa First, a guild infamous for its success rate in carrying out assassinations. It was the worst time of his life. At first, he was praised for his natural talent as an assassin and was constantly the center of attention of both fellow assassins and hirers alike. He had a long line of people volunteering to be his partner on missions, but not one of them stuck around for more than a week. They called him a dictator, a king; they taunted him with the names. They isolated him, and if Kageyama was honest, he isolated himself as well. He did missions alone, ignoring the risks, because he knew that he could pull it off somehow. The weight on his shoulders was unbearable, and it was crushing him slowly.

  


Then came Karasuno. They recognized his talent, and when they recruited him to join their guild, he jumped at the chance to leave Kitagawa First. He was still wary though: After all, who would want a dictator as their partner? Hinata sure didn’t at first, evidenced by his incessant complaining. The only reason they became partners was because Daichi and Suga forced them to be. They must have seen what could be, the potential that they had as polar opposites.

  


It was the best decision Kageyama had ever made in his life to join Karasuno, because there he met Hinata. His equal. His friend. His-

  


“Hey, stop staring at me like that if you want to get out of those chains!” Hinata snaps him out of his thoughts with his voice and the sound of keys jangling, and Kageyama’s attention is drawn back to the shrimp. His face is beet red, almost matching his hair, and Kageyama realizes how creepy he was just being, staring so intensely at him. He feels his own face heat up, and the moment he’s free of any restraints, he cuffs Hinata on the back of his head and walks past him, looking away to hide his face.

  


“Thanks.”

  


There’s a pause, then a satisfied, “You’re welcome.” Hinata walks behind Kageyama for a few minutes before asking, “Where are we going?”

  


Oh. Kageyama hadn’t thought of that. Internally, he scolds himself. In an effort to hide his embarrassment earlier, he just started walking the path he memorized to escape. He needs an excuse, now. Kageyama’s gift for quick thinking doesn’t fail him now, and he stops walking once he reaches a corner and presses his back to the wall, pulling his pistol to his chest. “We wait here. Our target said he wanted to speak to me in my cell, so he’ll have to walk by us. They’ll have guns, so we try to disarm them first. I’ll cover you while you go close.”

  


“Hey, um, Kageyama?”

  


Kageyama doesn’t bother to look at Hinata and hums in response. 

  


“We’ll hear them coming, right?” 

  


“Yeah, why?”

  


“I’m just going to sit for a bit, then,” Hinata says and slumps to the ground, back against the wall. Kageyama glances at him and snorts. “That never answered the question, dumbass Hinata…” His insult trails off when he sees a dark, wet spot on Hinata’s thigh, a hole in the center of it. 

  


“Shit, you idiot! Why didn’t you tell me?!” Kageyama immediately crouches next to his partner, dropping his gun to the ground as he tentatively touches Hinata’s leg, deciding what to do. He forces himself to shove his initial panic to somewhere far away; Hinata doesn’t need to see his panic right now, not when his face is pinched in pain like it is now. Maybe not even when those pain lines are smoothed out, either. Maybe not ever.

  


“It would have ruined my entrance!” Hinata hisses as Kageyama rips his pants open, revealing the bloody mess beneath. Kageyama feels Hinata’s hand grab his shoulder and squeeze hard, and a pang of guilt rushes through him, as it always does when something goes wrong on a mission. It was his call to run, after all, despite knowing they had guns.

  


“Not your fault.” Hinata’s pained voice doesn’t comfort Kageyama, who’s ripping strips of his shirt off to wrap his leg with. He ignores the comment and carefully but securely ties the cloth around the bullet wound in an effort to staunch the bleeding. A hand suddenly is touching his face and moves it so that he’s looking directly into Hinata’s huge, worried eyes. Why is he worried? He should know that Kageyama will take care of him. His hands stall on his leg in favor of putting all attention on his partner. That’s the least he deserves.

  


“Not. Your. Fault.” And dammit, Hinata sounds so sure, so determined, that Kageyama can’t help but cave. 

  


“Fine,” he relents, “now let me finish.” Hinata smiles then, so warm that the chill that’s been buried deep in Kageyama’s bones ever since those cuffs were snapped around his wrists thaws away in an instant. He has to look away in order to not be blinded by it.

  


“The bullet went all the way through, and I can’t give you proper treatment until we get back to Karasuno.” He ignores Hinata’s sarcastic ‘duh’. “Can you still stand?”

  


“Of course! Is that a challenge, Bakageyama?” Kageyama wants to keep up this banter, but the stress of seeing Hinata hurt has ripped any playfulness from him. 

  


“Just don’t get hurt anymore,” he says, ruffling his fluffy orange hair. Hands bat him away and refluff his hair, though for what reason, Kageyama’s not sure. It looks the same to him. “No promises.” Hinata tries to stand up unsuccessfully, and Kageyama hoists him to his feet with a string of insults, careful to not do anything too rough for obvious reasons. 

  


“You’re not fighting, so just sit back down, dumbass.” Hinata protests that vehemently, but Kageyama won’t have it. They don’t get to reach a conclusion, however, because the sound of footsteps rushing toward them have them dropping the argument and grabbing their weapons.

  


“We heard them, they’re down here!”

  


“Remember, leave one alive!”

  


Shit, they gave themselves away and lost the element of surprise with all this talking. How did Kageyama forget that they were in enemy territory? He practically growls at Hinata to get behind him, but Hinata stands surprisingly tall for someone so short, and Kageyama can instantly tell from Hinata’s focused expression that nothing he can say will sway Hinata. 

  


He just hopes that adrenaline is enough to distract Hinata from the gunshot wound.

  
  
\-----

  


Hinata’s leg throbs with every step he takes. Scratch that, it throbs even when he’s standing still. __

  


On his way to heroically save Kageyama from the clutches of their greatest enemies, Hinata barely felt the gunshot wound. Getting into the facility unnoticed had been a breeze, easy as cheese. Saving Kageyama, also cheese. Walking behind the man he just rescued at a normal, easy pace? Not so cheese, he quickly discovered.

  


His adrenaline had worn off immediately after the fight, and he found himself barely keeping up with Kageyama, but he didn’t want to distract his partner from his current objective of killing their target with his little scrape. Is that even still their objective? Their target is also their hirer, and by contract, you can’t kill a hirer. So then what if the target is the hirer? Does that cancel out? Just thinking about their situation hurts his brain, so he stops thinking about that, instead focusing on the night he’s had so far.

  


When they had finally stopped walking earlier, Hinata felt dizzy, and without thinking, he found himself on the ground, a worried Kageyama fussing over him, and all Hinata could think was  _ oh my God he’s ripping his shirt right now _ . 

  


Then the pain hit him tenfold, and as Kageyama poked and prodded and performed a whole freaking operation on his leg, it was all Hinata could do to not wail, let alone focus on Kageyama’s abs. Kageyama probably felt guilty about Hinata getting injured; he’s stupid like that, blaming himself when somebody else pulled the trigger on Hinata. And he calls Hinata the dumbass.

  


And now, they’re being rushed by, like, five men with guns and a dangerous drug lord who hired them just to abduct them. Perfect. If Hinata’s honest with himself, he was excited for tonight. It was supposed to be a simple mission, and that meant more time for him and Kageyama to spend together. Sitting with Kageyama, talking with him, it was all nice, but the cherry on top of tonight was supposed to be fighting with him. 

  


Kageyama and him are a freak duo, and Hinata always knows that somebody has his back when he’s with him. Even when he was trembling in pain with Kageyama wrapping his leg, he felt safe and warm. But, looking back on it, that might have been the blood. Whatever. Kageyama beckons for Hinata to stay behind him, but there’s no way he’s listening to that stupid-head, so he does what he does best; draws his blade and stands his ground. The moment the men turn the corner, Hinata’s on them, a shadow darting just under their noses.

  


Hinata’s small, but he more than makes up for it in sheer talent. He’s practiced and honed and sharpened his skills so that the playing field is not just even for when he faces bigger opponents (which is practically everyone), but so the scale is tipped in his favor for him.

  


Hinata crouches low and makes a deep gash in the back of one man’s ankles in a fluid motion, effectively cutting straight through his Achilles tendon and disabling him, then kicking his head to make sure he stays down. See, they may have guns, but they can only shoot him if they can aim at him, and he won’t give them the opportunity. 

  


A burly man next to him drops dead with the resounding sound of a gun firing, and Hinata gives Kageyama a quick thumbs up, smiling when Kageyama looks like he wants to shoot Hinata next. Hinata winks, and another bullet from Kageyama has a man nearly falling on top of him. Oh, Hinata must not have noticed him.

  


“Pay attention, dumbass!” Kageyama shouts at him furiously, and Hinata’s back in action, his dagger singing as he swipes at another set of ankles, but this one seems to be catching on to his antics and jumps back just in time to save himself. With a satisfied smirk, he aims his gun at Hinata and says smugly, “We only need one, runt.” 

  


Hinata’s instincts kick in as well as his anger at the nickname and he slaps the man’s arm away as it fires, leaving his ears ringing, and drives his dagger into the man’s heart. He yanks it out without a second glance and blood splatters on his pale face, contrasting it starkly. He darts to the next guard and gives him a quick death with a slit throat, and he goes to move onto the next one, but there’s nobody left to kill. Are they done?

  


“Hinata, look out!” Hinata’s head whips to Kageyama, who has his gun aimed at Hinata. He’s about to ask why when he feels cold iron against his head. An arm puts him in a tight chokehold and pulls him roughly to his captor’s chest, and Hinata catches a whiff of marijuanna and bad breath and his nose scrunches. His first reaction is to lash out and escape, so he throws an elbow back into his captors stomach, but not hard enough to cause any damage other than a grunt. A swift kick to the back of his injured leg has him crumpling over with a whimper, and he slams hard to his knees, the gun digging hard enough into his temple to break skin, and the fresh blood mingles with the old already on his face.

  


“Stay still or I swear, I’ll shoot next time, and your brains will be on the wall for the Reaper to scrape up later,” a low voice says into his ear, and Hinata shivers when his breath tickles his ear. It’s their target. How did he get the jump on him? “Let him go,” Kageyama says darkly, and Hinata’s attention is immediately drawn to him. He meets Kageyama’s eyes and almost flinches. Almost.

  


Never has he seen a face so twisted, so  _ angry _ , on Kageyama, despite having a permanent scowl at all times, and the sight of it is unfamiliar. The arm around his neck tightens and Hinata’s hands fly up to the arm, dropping his blade to the ground with a clatter and trying to pry the skinny arm away from him, just to get a reprieve.

  


“I said, let him go.” Kageyama doesn’t yell, but somehow, he feels more threatened by this deadly calm than he ever has before. Or, he would feel threatened had he been the one holding the gun to his head. The words reverberate in Hinata’s soul, echoing in his mind and replaying over and over as a way of comforting himself and quelling the rising panic of being held hostage. 

  


Kageyama takes a threatening step forward, the gun still aimed over Hinata’s shoulder, and Hinata wants to laugh, despite the obvious danger he’s in. Only Kageyama would be able to both make the man with Hinata’s life in his hands feel nervous and make Hinata feel safe with one step. He takes another, and the target’s hand jerks the gun deeper into his skull as he talks, earning a wince from Hinata. “I’ll kill him!” Another step. “Didn’t you just hear me?! I said, I'll shoot him!” His voice trembles. Another step. The man behind him tenses up as Kageyama gets nearer and nearer, and Hinata knows that one of two things is about to go down: He will either shoot Hinata and run or not shoot Hinata and run. If he could speak, he’d tell Kageyama that, but the arm crushing his windpipe is a minor inconvenience, to say the least, so he settles for wildly moving his eyes to look behind him, hoping his message gets through.

  


Kageyama’s so close that Hinata could touch him now. Hinata hears the man behind him swallow nervously, and satisfaction floods him at the sound. _That’s what you get for ruining my big savior moment!_ _Be scared of my partner!_

  


It all happens in a moment. Hinata’s already-narrow air pathway is completely cut off and his eyes bulge, movements becoming feral as he leaves deep scratch marks on the man’s arm, sputtering to try and force a breath down his throat. And then the pressure is gone, leaving Hinata a coughing mess on the ground, tears streaming down his cheeks as he grasps at his throat and desperately sucks in breaths. He’s never taking oxygen for granted again, that’s for sure.

  


There’s a loud gunshot and a scream of pain, then there’s silence. For the second time today, Kageyama’s huge hands are roaming all over him, grabbing his face and gently lifting his head so that he’s looking into blue eyes scrunched in worry. 

  


“Hinata,” Kageyama says quietly, carefully, as if raising his voice might hurt Hinata. He tries to talk, but all that comes out is a series of particularly violent and gross-sounding coughs. Kageyama’s talking, but it’s hard to hear him over the sound of himself. When his cough attack is finally over, he can hear Kageyama clearly.

  


“Hey, dumbass, calm down.” Wow, he’s... really bad at making people feel better. It’s kind of endearing, actually. Hinata’s shoulders shake and he drops his head to his chest, and Kageyama tenses, his hand pulling away from his face. “Hey, idiot. Don’t...” He swallows loudly, as if nervous. “Don’t cry.” A hesitant hand places itself on Hinata’s back, and Hinata howls.

  


He laughs so hard that, for the second time that day, tears squeeze their way out of his eyes. His laughter echoes in the halls and fills his own ears, and he looks up at Kageyama through the blur of tears. He looks baffled, his eyes wide and his mouth parted, then he scowls. “What’s so funny?” He demands, confusion giving way to a familiar anger.

  


“You just- You don’t know how-!” Hinata has a hard time even forming sentences, and he forces himself to take a deep breath and calm himself down. After a minute, he’s finally come down from his dopamine high, and he realizes how much laughing hurt his already-sore throat. His breath is a whistle in his throat now, thanks to that whole fiasco, and Kageyama scolds him. “Don’t hurt yourself even more!”

  


Hinata, voice raspy, replies, “I know, I know. How was I supposed to know he was right behind me?”

  


“Because you are a trained assassin! The best of the best, according to most.”

  


“Why not all?”

  


“Because some people just think you’re a stupid idiot who was no clue what he’s doing!”

  


Hinata ponders that for a moment, then says back with an earnest pout, “Who would say that about me?” Kageyama looks at Hinata like he’s missing something extremely obvious, and Hinata yells at him to tell him why he’s looking at him like that; it’s a disturbing thing when Kageyama stares at you, even if not in anger. That permanent scowl is just so… unwelcoming.

  


Once Hinata finishes his complaining, Kageyama gives a response as a snort. “Come on, loser, let’s get out of here before more guards come to see what’s up.” Hinata nods firmly in agreement, muttering to himself about how this place gives him the heebie-jeebies, and goes to stand up. All too suddenly, he’s reminded of the bullet wound on his leg in a flash of pain, and he falls back to the ground with a whimper. He curses himself for  _ whimpering _ , like he’s some little puppy, in front of Kageyama. “Dumbass Hinata, just let me carry you!” Let him… what?

  


Hinata feels his face warm and he knows that he must have just turned as red as a tomato, but it’s comforting when he looks at Kageyama and sees just how flustered he is as well. Hinata goes for a normal approach, trying not to act like his whole body suddenly feels like a sauna. “Sure, if you can carry me all the way back, dummy.”

  


At the mention of a competition, Kageyama’s embarrassment fades away into something else. Something that looks even more natural than that frown he always sports.

  


Happiness.

  


“That’s not even hard! It’s not like I’ve been sitting on my ass for the past twenty years!” He grabs Hinata with a small grin and pulls him to his strong chest, bridal style. See, the thing is, Kageyama’s embarrassment may have fled him with the threat of losing to Hinata in a competition, but Hinata’s hasn’t. He turns his face into Kageyama’s shirt to hide the extend of his redness, breathing in that familiar smell of his. Gunpowder and sweat.  (See? He doesn't hate everything about guns!)

  


A wave of tiredness rolls over him, sucking him under an ocean of exhaustion. I guess he hasn’t slept that much since he started the mission, with all the spy stuff and such. Hinata could sneak around much more easily than Kageyama could, so he ended up trailing their target most of the time, following on rooftops, never once betraying his presence. Plus, he’s also been shot. That’s a pretty good excuse to nap. He yawns dramatically, relaxing into the big arms that cradle him, and they tighten around him.

  


Once the pair are back out into the crisp air of night meeting morning, Hinata’s breathing evens out and his eyes slip shut, and he feels more peaceful than he’s ever felt in his life, despite nearly dying. Multiple times. Just today. As the edges of consciousness start to fade away, he hears that gruff voice he’s come to love say, “Sweet dreams, Shouyou.”

  


And before Hinata finally crosses into the comforting oblivion of sleep, he has a reply of his own, of course, because he has to one up Kageyama.

  


“Sweet dreams, Tobio.”

**Author's Note:**

> there she is ig, i'm open to criticism and suggestions. actually, im MORE than open to criticism and suggestions. i want to improve my writing, so please help me! 
> 
> oh yeah, hope u liked it :)


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